Quaternion-Guided Cislunar Guidance via Embedded SIMD MPC

Low-thrust trajectory design in chaotic multi-body regimes typically depends on ground-based optimization that isolates orbital mechanics from spacecraft attitude kinematics, leaving autonomous systems vulnerable to local gravitational capture traps. To resolve this, we present an autonomous on-board guidance framework that directly couples invariant manifold transfers with continuous unit-quaternion attitude steering through embedded Model Predictive Control. By replacing traditional gradient-based solvers with a hardware-accelerated SIMD parallel-shooting pipeline, the system resolves trajectory correction maneuvers in real time on resource-constrained edge processors. The method achieves ballistic invariant capture with a terminal miss distance of 96 km—a margin readily improvable through continuous receding-horizon updates—confirming the viability of deterministic, autonomous deep-space guidance for small satellites.